It is remarkable to me, as I type this, that I am already writing a “farewell” message. The time has flown, and I also have a sense of so much more to accomplish. Thankfully, most of our past presidents have remained active contributors to the division, and I aspire to be the same. Hopefully, you haven’t heard the last of me yet.
It is customary in these final columns to give thanks to who have helped the division this year, and I do that below. But I wanted to start with a few observations about where I think we need to go next:
- Leveraging strong partnerships. It is fair to say that the division enjoys exceptionally strong ties with Section II of Div. 12 (Clinical Geropsychology) and CONA (the APA Committee on Aging). Debbie DiGilio does a masterful job in making sure that the various “aging” constituencies of APA stay in constant communication. Many of our division members are also active members of the Gerontological Society of America (indeed, many play leadership roles there, too). My feeling is that we need to continue to strengthen – and even formalize – these partnerships. Are there ways that we can increase our organizational influence and better share our resources by working together more?
- Welcoming the next generation. So much of the exciting work this year (mentoring program, special interest groups, inter-divisional conference programming) was led by early career psychologists – students, postdocs and junior faculty. This energy and enthusiasm are what the division needs to keep evolving and to respond to the needs of its future members. I know Jennifer Margrett, our incoming president, is committed to making sure that our division leadership is multigeneration and self-sustaining.
- Reflecting the diversity of adult development and aging. I believe that it is important that the division represents a global perspective on the diversity of the aging populations that we aim to study, teach about and serve. From 1946-1979, Div. 20 had only three female presidents. Recent years have improved the gender balance. Since 1980, 43 percent of our presidents have been women, but even here there is progress to be made, and in its almost 75 year history, the division has had only one person of color as president. I believe we have a collective responsibility to make the division as reflective of our larger communities as possible.
- Contemplating our carbon footprint and making the division more ubiquitous. APA’s annual convention is terrific. Nothing beats getting together with colleagues, exchanging research and also catching up on personal lives. But the convention is also expensive, and air travel/hotels have large carbon footprints. The other problem is that conventions are once a year, so there are 51 weeks of the year where, for many division members, the division isn’t very salient. We have tried to change that a bit this year, with more Listserv postings and social network posts. Are there other ways we could be touching the division members more regularly? Virtual mid-year conferences and seminars for our interest groups and mentoring teams? Webinars?
- Figuring out the division’s place within APA and standing for science. APA is an organization dedicated to research, education and practice. It is fair to say that Div. 20 tends to disproportionately represent researchers and teachers, and many practitioners find their home in Section II of Div. 12. How can we advocate for science within APA? Thanks to Debbie DiGilio, Wally Boot and CONA, the division is already partnering on one science advocacy project. What else can we do to help promote open science, rigor, and reproducibility?
- Celebrating the first 75 years, and planning the next 75. In 2021, Div. 20 will be 75 years old. I have encouraged Jennifer Margrett to form a 75th Anniversary Committee and to plan events for our 75th year. I am also mindful, however, that we have haven’t revisited our vision, mission or strategy in a long time. I believe Jennifer Margrett plans to pursue this during her presidential year, and I will support her in this strategic planning in any way that I can.
We really need to hear from division members about what is working well, and what could be better.
Of course, an outgoing division president is mostly thankful for the huge corps of colleagues who help keep the division afloat. I have so much gratitude for:
- Joe Gaugler, who should have been able to spend this year in relative obscurity as past president but instead was a regular and frequent source of counsel, a fundraiser extraordinaire (The Fund for Div. 20), and stepped in as interim treasurer at the end of the year
- Joann Montepare, who carried the dual roles of secretary and Listserv administrator. What I have been thankful for is how proactive she has been, reminding and suggesting, for example, Listserv policies or agenda items for our executive meetings. An incoming president always has much to learn, but Joann made it a lot easier to navigate.
- Pat Parmelee and Susan Krauss Whitbourne, who took their Council Representative roles extremely seriously. In any large organization, there can be times when the needs of the division can sometimes bump again the procedures and policies of the larger body; in several instances, they advocated for us with APA and ensured good communication amongst many parties.
- Jennifer Tehan Stanley and Kelly Cichy, who took a first step in revitalizing the division’s education portfolio. Many of you participated in a needs assessment, which has helped them to frame an agenda for the kinds of teaching supports you would value. We’ll be hearing more from them next year.
- Patrick Hill and Nancy Sin, who did more than you can imagine to ensure continued leadership in the division. This year, we had multiple vacancies to put up for election: president-elect, treasurer, two members at large and a Council Representative. As past presidents have noted, it is exceedingly difficult to find candidates for some positions. We’re all busy people, and we’re worried about taking on one more thing. As this year’s election showed, our elections team engaged in the kind of passionate persuasion and reassurance that yielded terrific candidates.
- Karen Hooker and Ruchika Prakash, who worked in a beautifully coordinated way to manage this year’s awards program. They marketed the awards, updated the website, reached out to candidates and developed a transparent judging process. I have loved seeing how they divided and conquered this task
- Courtney Polenick, who has developed and carried forward a mentorship program for early career scholars in our division. With dozens of mentees, they undertook the daunting process of finding matching mentors. From informal conversations with some mentees, I’ve learned that these extra mentorship opportunities have provided valuable new insights and contacts to our Div. 20 early career members. What is even more impressive is that Courtney has turned her eye to sustainability, and we have the next generation of leadership in place.
- Nicole DePasquale, who developed our division Special Interest Groups (SIG). With 21 groups and hundreds of respondents, it is fair to say that this program ended up being far more successful than expected. We’re hoping the SIG program will help build important networks within the division that will carry forward in productive ways for years. As with Courtney, Nicole has recruited a broad leadership team, and we hope to have years of leadership for this program going forward.
- Harvey Sterns, two-time past president, has served as the division historian. He’s been an invaluable source of information about the rationale for past activities, and he even put together a terrific convention symposium comprised of past presidents, described elsewhere in this issue. Harvey is making sure past and present work together to guide the future.
- Grace Caskie, newsletter editor, whose job has evolved in ways she probably never imagined. Grace now interacts with APA web staff to turn our stories into digestible electronic entries; these then form the basis of shareable stories that we can push on social media. This is an area we hope to show continued growth in next year.
- Tina Savla and Laura Zahodne, our program chair and associate program chair. The richness of this year’s APA program is a testament to their hard work and organizational skill. What is less visible is the roles they have played in organizing extra spaces for us, coordinating our social program and even soliciting donations to help defray some of these costs. They’ve also just shared terrific advice and guidance that have helped, for example, simplify the process by which division members get reimbursed for expenses. I’m also delighted that Julie Blaskewicz Boron has already signed on to be next year’s associate program chair, assisting Laura. The division is in a strong place for years to come in terms of convention programming.
- Brad Taylor, Lauren Stratton, Katie Anthony and Naomi Meinertz, who are our student representatives. They have collaborated with our other early career teams, they have contributed newsletter content and they’ve helped with some of our social media work. More importantly, they’ve done the herculean task of coordinating an interdivisional Convention program aimed at student networking/professional development.
I also want to thank many other members of our division executive for volunteering time and enthusiasm, including Alan Stevens and Lynn Martire (fellowship), Gloria Luong (membership), Lisa Hollis-Sawyer (social media), Jessica Brooks and Frank Infurna (website coordinators), Becca Levy, Lisa Brown and Erin Sakai (liaisons to APA committees and divisions) and Jennifer Bellingtier and Neika Sharifian (postdoctoral representatives). We are fortunate to have such a deep bench of volunteers.
What a privilege it has been to serve my primary professional organization, Div. 20, as an executive committee member for these past 24 years and to serve as president for the past year. I leave this role encouraged about the future of our division, and I am filled with a sense of purpose for what we must accomplish next. Thank you for your support.